Thin-film transistors are employed to produce high-end display apparatuses with high-quality display effects. Each pixel on a display panel in a display apparatus is driven to emit light by a thin-film transistor integrated in the display panel.
At present, the manufacturing method of a thin-film transistor typically comprises the following steps:
Forming an active layer, wherein the active layer comprises a source doping region and a drain doping region;
Depositing an insulating layer over the active layer;
Etching the insulating layer over the source doping region and over the drain doping region respectively to thereby expose the source doping region and the drain doping region and form two contact vias;
Depositing a source-drain metal layer over the insulating layer and forming a source electrode and a drain electrode through a patterning process over the source-drain metal layer.
The conventional manufacturing method of a thin-film transistor as described above includes at least the following issues:
At present, due to the difficulty to control the etching process, issues such as over-etching and under-etching with regard to the contact vias often arise during etching of the insulating layer to form contact vias. Both the issue of over-etching and the issue of under-etching can have adverse effects to the thin-film transistors that are manufactured this way, which can ultimately lead to reduced yield of the thin-film transistors.